The invention relates to finance applications or programs such as tax preparation and personal finance programs that may be utilized to prepare electronic tax returns and manage personal finances. Examples of tax preparation programs include TurboTax®, ProSeries® and Lacerte® tax preparation programs, which are known consumer and professional tax preparation programs available from Intuit Inc., Mountain View, Calif., H&R Block TaxCut software, available from H&R Block, Inc., Kansas City, Mo., and TaxACT® software, available from 2nd Story Software, Inc. TurboTax®, ProSeries® and Lacerte® are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., and TaxACT® is a registered trademark of 2nd Story Software, Inc. Examples of desktop and on-line personal finance programs include Quicken®, FinanceWorks® and Mint.com, available from Mint Software, Inc., Microsoft Money, which is available from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. and other personal finance programs including wasabe.com. Quicken® and FinanceWorks® are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc.
Personal finance programs such as tax preparation programs have become very popular and allow a user, such as a taxpayer or tax professional, to prepare and electronically file an electronic individual or business tax return using a computer. For example, certain tax preparation programs present a list of tax-related questions or data entry fields to the user as a series of interview screens or fillable forms. In response, the user enters appropriate data or answers. Requested data or questions may relate to personal and family matters such as the user's social security number, marital status, number of dependents, etc. Other interview screens and questions may relate the user's wages, retirement plan contributions, and state and federal taxes that were paid or withheld as provided in Form-W2. Upon entering the required data, the tax preparation program prepares an electronic tax return, and the electronic tax return is formatted as necessary and electronically filed with a tax authority such as the Internal Revenue Service, a state tax authority, or other tax collecting entity on behalf of the user.
While tax preparation programs have greatly simplified preparation of tax returns, such applications have a rigid framework of interview screens and forms. These screens or forms are organized according to a pre-defined structure and are arranged to be presented in a particular linear sequence. Further, the interface used by the tax preparation application is the same for all users. Moreover, user interaction with the interview screens or forms is fixed and is the same for all users due to the pre-determined or fixed tree structure and interface.
These pre-determined structures and sequences, while providing certain predictability and simplifying programming, lack flexibility and do not address unique attributes of different users or categories or groups of users of the tax preparation program. As such, tax preparation programs having fixed, pre-determined file structures, interface and interaction models are not personalized or customized to individual users. Instead, screens or forms are presented to users in the same manner without regard to whether the user would prefer to work with a different interface or interact differently with the tax preparation program. The static, pre-defined and rigid nature of known tax preparation programs becomes readily apparent when considering that users differ vastly in their needs, preferences, behaviors, habits, attitudes, demographics, stage of life, psychology, personality, etc.
Thus, while users may be satisfied with the result achieved utilizing the tax preparation program, they may desire a more personalized experience when preparing the electronic tax return. The rigidity of known tax preparation programs may also undermine user confidence since particular attributes of the user may require completion of certain forms or screens that are not readily identifiable given the complexity of tax laws and since all of the required forms may not be readily identifiable when using the tax program, particularly if the user is not that familiar with computers, the tax preparation program, tax laws and forms.